My concern is that there may be a push to legally require children to be rear-facing for so long. I think its a great message, but I hope parents will still have the discretion to decide it isn't best for their child.

I say this as someone who suffers from severe motion sickness even as an adult. It isn't just about discomfort. I have a hard enough time sitting in the front seat. Thankfully DD has displayed no signs of having my problem, but if she does I am going to address it. Not doing so would be abusive in my opinion. If she doesn't then she will probably be rear-facing for many years.

Personally, I'd be happy with 2 AND 30 here. Or really, just seats like the have in Sweden! Nothing will get my kids even close to 4 that we have here. Having huge kiddos with long torsos has it's disadvantages.

My concern is that there may be a push to legally require children to be rear-facing for so long. I think its a great message, but I hope parents will still have the discretion to decide it isn't best for their child.

They have talked about making it a law here, to RF to 4 years at least.
I think it's a great, fantastic idea, and I really hope that will happen in the next few years. As do everyone I know.
It will be a transition time of course, and also there has to be some "medical excuse part" or summat.

Kudos to you to going back to rfing!
Two months ago on a road trip, dd puked all over her seat. It dripped down holes and everything. We stopped at a store and dh cleaned it up pretty well, but it still smelled and we had a few more hours to go. We decided to just buy a cheap ffing seat (not the best choice in hindsight, but it was a quick decision.)
Anyway, the point is - she rode ffing the rest of the trip, and now goes ff once or twice a month, since we're using the cheapo as a spare. She's equally happy or fussy, no matter which way she's facing, and doesn't mind going back to rear after ffing.
So it's not to late to go back to rfing!

They have talked about making it a law here, to RF to 4 years at least.
I think it's a great, fantastic idea, and I really hope that will happen in the next few years. As do everyone I know.
It will be a transition time of course, and also there has to be some "medical excuse part" or summat.

And there needs to be seats that will accomidate tall children to 4yos, which there is not as of now. Neither of my ds's could make it to 3, let alone 4, with the seats currently on the market.

Yeah, I wish there were more seats to choose from for higher rear-facing limits. My DD doesn't look like she will make it to 3 in her rear-facing seat. She is just plain heavy.

Question, do they stay rear facing at 35 pounds or do you turn them at 35 pounds? Or do you wait until 36 pounds, that being OVER the limit so no longer safe. Just want to be sure. I guess when they get close you have to check their weight quite often to make sure they don't get too heavy for RF.

Stay at home wife to Jason for 7 years Mama to Larissa Mae 2 years old :, Gavin Clay 7 months :, and Neveah Ann April 24, 2005 to July 13, 2007 ED for my food allergic babe. :::

My concern is that there may be a push to legally require children to be rear-facing for so long. I think its a great message, but I hope parents will still have the discretion to decide it isn't best for their child.

I say this as someone who suffers from severe motion sickness even as an adult. It isn't just about discomfort. I have a hard enough time sitting in the front seat. Thankfully DD has displayed no signs of having my problem, but if she does I am going to address it. Not doing so would be abusive in my opinion. If she doesn't then she will probably be rear-facing for many years.

Exactly.

My DD is very heat sensitive due to her eczema, which was quite severe when she was a toddler and preschooler. During the summer, having her in a rear-facing car seat meant that she was getting none of the benefit of the a/c in the car, or breeze through an open window. More than 30 minutes in the car seat on a warm day was just awful for her skin.

I turned her ff when she was 18 months old, in the summer. She no longer would scratch her self raw after 30 minutes car ride.

i think 2 and 30 is a good starting point. people already freak out about keeping kids rearfacing til one, i cant imagine the fits that will be thrown if the law jumps from one to four

It's highly unlikely that it would just jump from 1 to 4, whether that is the safest or not. There are lots of kids under 4 who are not even in a harnessed seat, let alone in a rear facing seat. It is much more logical to extend the rear facing requirement by a smaller amount, to gain initial compliance, and go from there.

I've a couple friends expecting their first -- and many friends/sisters with young children who'd fit this age range.

I posted the BMJ link to my facebook page. I kept dd1 rear-facing 'til she hit her weight limit for her bucket, and kept dd2 rear-facing even longer (different bucket) - 'til she was past two years of age. Both of my sisters with little'uns have been ecstatic to turn their babies front-facing as soon as they hit one (one even earlier because he was 'so long.').

IME, with little babies, having a mirror they can look in to see their parents' faces while driving can help a lot with their fussing while rear-facing. And when dh was driving, I would sit in the seat next to the car seat, so babe wasn't all alone. Neither of our girls had a problem with being rear-facing (once we got mirrors and me sitting near them figured out ) -- and in fact, dd1 didn't get carsick 'til she was forward-facing.

In terms of carsickness, a mom here on mothering recommended folding a square of newspaper and putting it between tummy and shirt when buckling kids in -she said she didn't know why it worked, her Ped told her to try it. But it does absolutely work!! DD1 has only been carsick once while wearing it - when we forgot to put the paper in 'til she asked for it, and I suspect that was too late. And she got reliably carsick otherwise. Hope it's helpful for someone, as it has been wonderful for us!

We had already planned to leave ds rfing until he hit the limit on his seat (it's a convertable). I know when I aksed his pedi at his 9 month appointment about turning him, she said "I can understand where your question comes from since he's a big boy, but, we would like to keep him rfing for as long as possible". I'll have to bring it back up at his 12 month appointment next month as he's close to or over 30 pounds by now and his seat has a limit of 35 pounds rfing.